- name cards face-down in a pile
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1a: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (e.g. taking turns in talking, listening to peers, waiting to speak until another person is finished talking, asking questions and waiting for an answer, gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.3.c: Recognize one’s own name and familiar common signs and labels (e.g., STOP).
Head Start Outcomes:
Social Emotional Development/Self-Regulation: Follows simple rules, routines, and directions.
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Literacy Knowledge/Print Concepts and Conventions: Recognizes print in everyday life, such as numbers, letters, one’s name, words, and familiar logos and signs.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 1: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (taking turns in talking; listening to peers; waiting until someone is finished; asking questions and waiting for an answer; gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 12: Listen to, recite, sing, and dramatize a variety of age-appropriate literature.
Mathematics/Data Collection and Analysis 15: Recognize one’s own name and familiar common signs and labels (e.g., STOP).
Greeting Song: “We’re Happy You Are Here” #4
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Name Recognition, Phonological Awareness (Rhythm and Repetition)
Tell children you are going to sing the song “We’re Happy You Are Here.” Explain that you will take the first three name cards on the pile and turn them over. Tell children if they notice their name they are to come up and hold their card. Say, We are all going to sing to the children who are holding their name cards. When we sing your name, hold your card up high.
After you have sung to a group, have them place their name cards face up in a pile next to the other cards. Allow each child to turn over one card for the next round.
We’re Happy You Are Here
(sung to the tune of “Goodnight, Ladies)
Hello, <child’s name>.
Hello, <child’s name>.
Hello, <child’s name>.
We’re happy you are here.
Final Verse
Hello, everyone.
Hello, everyone.
Hello, everyone.
We’re happy you are here.
Adaptation: Support children who still do not recognize their names in print by saying, for example, Get ready, Arthur, this time we will say your name.